What is a Q plate?

A Q plate (or QN in Northern Ireland) is a plate starting with the letter Q, issued when a vehicle's exact age or original identity can't be verified. It turns up on kit cars, some imports where the build date can't be proven, and vehicles rebuilt from parts of more than one donor car.

A Q plate isn't automatically a bad sign - kit cars and some legitimate classic rebuilds are Q-plated as standard. But because it deliberately doesn't reveal an age or history the way a normal plate does, the usual age-based checks won't tell you much about a Q-plated car.

If you're looking at one, it's worth asking more directly about the build, its parts' origins and its paperwork than you would for a normally-plated car, since the plate itself won't fill in those gaps.